Do you want to understand more about water projects in North Utah?
About River projects in Logan, Utah?
About their potential impact?
About the Great Salt Lake's dire condition?
About how landslides might be more likely if Canyon Road or its trails are expanded northward?
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| A 1916 landslide at 470 E on Canyon Road collapses the entire Logan Bluff after an August rainstorm. |
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FAQ: How can expert prove that the Little Logan River is a natural river, along its entire 5.3 mile length?
Canals are manmade waterways.
The North Branch of the Logan River has two legal names: NBLR and Little Logan River. These two names appear in hundreds of property deeds, certificates of water rights, plat maps, historic maps, Federal topographic maps, and digital maps available from Cache County, the Division of Water Rights, Canal maps, Google maps, OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps, Utah State University special collections, USU digital commons, and the Library of Congress. The original historic name is North Branch of the Logan River. The map below shows that the label for the Logan River was drafted along the north edge of Logan's Island-ALONG THE LITTLE LOGAN RIVER! This map was published in 1890 but the information dates back several decades.
Modern maps often call it the Little Logan River. It was not little, however, until water masters changed its water flows and diverted all water to the south branch after the irrigation season. It is now desiccated after the irrigation season. In 2024 and 2025, the river had a peak discharge of ~85 cubic feet per second from its branch at Sumac Park to about 750 East 150 North. There is much less water flowing elsewhere (Figure 5) due to complex diversions of water into canals.
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| USGS National map in its default mode. You can zoom in yourself to check that the rivers on the north and south edge of Logan's Island are identified as rivers (blue) not as canals (orange). |
3. Originally, the NBLR had so much water that a dozen mills were powered by its waters 125 years ago. Its power generated the first municipal electricity in Utah. See the industry that was reliant on the Little Logan River in the Sanborn map below.
The NBLR is clearly identified as a river on most historic and modern maps.
Many types of information PROVE that the North Branch of the Logan River (the Little Logan River) is a natural river. Geology, historic maps, written history, the National Map of US Geological Survey (Federal), Utah Division of Water Quality, and many kinds of legal documents prove that it is a river.
Meanders in the Little Logan River (green below) PROVE it is a natural river.
The river was so significant that the first map of Cache County showed the North Branch of the Logan River but omitted its South Branch!
County properties were recorded on historic maps that showed only the North Branch until ~1899.
The North Branch of the Logan River had a thriving trout population that fed many families with its bounty. It was among the best trout streams in Utah (Kennedy and Unhanand, 1974). Later the water was diverted away for half of the year. In 1973, ~2600 fish rotted in a channel when the water was “turned off.” We call this the BIG ROT. Canals can have fish but not in populations of this scale.
There are 12 parks plus many private gallery forests along the North Branch of the Logan River. Fewer parks straddle the South Branch and main Logan River (6). Parks are rarely developed on the banks of man-made canals! Visitation is strongly focused on the Little Logan River itself in many of the parks-at least during the summer months when the river is permitted to flow in its channel. Tubing, wading, swimming, rope swinging, dam building, splashing, playing, bird watching, relaxing, fishing and nature watching have been the favorite riverside recreational activities in these river parks. This historic development pattern is proof of the river status.
Merlin Olsen Central Park is a mecca for watersports.
In 1999, 2009 and 2012 Logan City filed legal documents naming the NBLR as a river with the State Engineer. Other permits were recorded as well.
Recent building permits and documents filed with governmental organizations refer to the Little Logan River as the North Branch of the Logan River, not as a man-made canal.
Rivers have been modified by humans ALL OVER THE WORLD. Modifying the course of a river or “industrializing” a part of a natural river never transforms the river into a man-made canal. If this logic were used, the main Logan River south of Logan’s Island would be a canal because it was straightened and incised far more extensively than the Little Logan River. The South Branch lost dozens of its original Islands, and every one of its original meanders along the southeast edge of Logan’s Island during urbanization. Little Logan River preserves most of its meanders and most of its original channel is in situ.
Logan City owns every speck of the land under the Little Logan River along with every speck of land under the main Logan River. Canal alignments are often private.
Simply treating a natural river like a man-made canal does not make it into one. IF this were possible, treating your cat like a dog could convert a feline into a canine.
See an Explanation of river law. The law is spelled out at 3 min.
ALTOGETHER points 1-13 show that the Little Logan River is a natural river, not a canal. That gives it extra protection, yet sponsors and perhaps the State Engineer are treating the Little Logan River as if it were a canal that can be modified to their will.
SCIENCE SIDEBAR: Rivers are the focus of intense scientific study. This short synthesis explains key aspects of rivers, their kinds, controls, and processes. Understanding the essential features of rivers should make it clear to all residents of Cache Valley that Little Logan River conveys irrigation water but does not lose its status and protection as a river.
Main portals to information about our rivers, infrastructure projects, landslides, algae, river buffers, and the Great Salt Lake's need for unused irrigation water in our community
######################################RIVER INFORMATION. Published report on Little Logan River. THIS DOCUMENT AND MORE
Tinyurl.com/LLRReport
TINYURL.COM/RESTORELLR =Companion publication TINYURL.COM/SAVELLR. This link is also a PORTAL TO ALL REPORTS
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GREAT SALT LAKE NEEDS UNUSED WATER FROM LOGAN RIVER to AVERT FURTHER COLLAPSE
TINYURL.COM/GSLCOLLAPSING
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CANYON ROAD WATER PIPE AND its likelihood of increasing LANDSLIDES if the unstable Logan Bluff is under cut in the process
TINYURL.COM/MORELANDSLIDES
Video about deadly landslide that killed 3 people in 2009, history of collapses, court case, family killed posted by law firm for the family
Two RIVERS, CANALS, and fountains have this problem
TINYURL.COM/ALGAECHOKINGLGN
A photo album documenting problematic algae choking public waterways
Tubing index and protecting the LIttle Logan River (LLR)
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How can we demonstrate that the Little Logan River is a river, not a canal?
Rivers are protected by federal and Utah laws.
River status of the Little Logan River (LLR)
tinyurl.com/riverBuffer LLR and SBLR
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FLOOD HAZARD VIDEOS FROM UTAH
FLOOD-RELATED VIDEOS-UTAH
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RIVER BUFFER ZONES
tinyurl.com/riverBuffer
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| Families use the Little Logan River constantly. |
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| The Little Logan River has two high flow sections and two low-flow sections downstream of canals. That makes the river extremely variable in its benefits and character. |
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